Three entrepreneurial University of Vermont students have created an online platform that is changing charitable giving.
GiftDrive allows nonprofits to set up a drive for a particular event or ongoing necessities. The orgs pick out items, which a donor can select and buy with just a few clicks. The goods are then delivered directly to the organization.
“It’s an Amazon wish list mixed with a GoFundMe — but built for nonprofits,” said Logan Vaughan, the fledgling company’s cofounder and CEO.
Vaughan, who is a junior at UVM, along with cofounders Miro Gohacki and Corinne Atwell, were in an entrepreneurship class last year that tasked them with identifying problems in an industry and then finding a solution. The trio gravitated toward nonprofits and learned that in-kind donations, rather than cash alone, can help save time and hassle for both donors and the organizations.
Gohacki, a computer science major who graduated in May, wrote 1,000 lines of code for the website as the trio spent hundreds of hours over the summer building the platform.
“It’s been pretty amazing what our team has been able to accomplish,” Vaughan said.
The site launched in September, and, as of Tuesday, eight Vermont nonprofits, from Bennington to East Fairfield, had launched a drive. It’s free for the organizations, and Vaughan said a 50-cent surcharge on each order covers the cost of running the website. Good Samaritan Haven in Barre has gotten 24 donations for its Winter Survival Gear Drive, while the Colchester Community Food Shelf has received 100 items for its annual Thanksgiving drive. Some donations were purchased from big-box stores or online retailers, but there are also opportunities to buy local. COTS, for instance, is running a winter boot drive that links to Danform Shoes in Shelburne.
“It is amazing. It is simple. It is flawless,” said Ginger Morton, president of the Williston Community Food Shelf. “They are responsive if you have any questions or needs. I can’t say enough good things about [the platform].”
Word is getting out about GiftDrive, and Vaughan envisions scaling it up at some point. But for now, he’s just happy to hear the positive feedback from users and his teacher, who gave the team an A+ on the project.
“It was definitely my favorite class of college so far,” he said.
Learn more at giftdrive.org.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Gift Wrapped”
This article appears in The Tech Issue 2025.
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